Mykicards will be switched off in their thousands in coming weeks as they begin to reach their four-year expiry date.

Myki users in Geelong, where the smartcard ticketing system was first introduced on buses, will be the first affected, followed by commuters in other regional towns. Melburnians who took up an early offer of a free myki card will follow.

Combined with the removal of single-use tickets, the system that was intended to make public transport more user-friendly has undoubtedly made it absurdly difficult.

The Transport Ticketing Authority issued a notice on its website on Tuesday after Nine News reporter Andrew Lund reported on Twitter that his myki card, bought in Geelong on the first day they were issued, had just expired.

Myki cards will be switched off in their thousands. Photo: Steve Lightfoot

People with registered myki cards will be sent an email warning their card is due to expire within 14 days, an authority spokesman said. They could swap their old card for a new one at the PTV Hub at Southern Cross Station - the only place in the state where this can be done - or buy a new card for $6 and lodge a reimbursement form.

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But the many myki users who have not registered their card will receive no warning it will expire. Instead, they can view the expiry date using a myki machine or myki check.

It also emerged on Tuesday that myki is overcharging more than 20,000 public transport users a week on average, accruing more than $51,000 in excess fares and reimbursing only $27,000 of that, according to data submitted to an online watchdog.

The website mykileaks.org has assessed more than 180,000 myki fare transactions in the past year and calculated the ticketing system still overcharges one in every 200 users. The site automatically deduces whether an error has occurred once users upload their myki statement.

The website has identified a number of recurring errors yet to be rectified, including incorrectly charging bus users for travel in zones 1 and 2 and charging users for two tram trips when they ought to have been charged for one.

''Myki has failed to deliver the fundamental requirement of any ticketing system - to charge the correct fare,'' website creator Jonathan Mullins said.

''Combined with the removal of single-use tickets, the system that was intended to make public transport more user-friendly has undoubtedly made it absurdly difficult.''

The Transport Ticketing Authority responded that a small amount of overcharging would occur while myki runs alongside Metcard, but that in all cases users were automatically reimbursed in full.

The authority's chief executive, Bernie Carolan, said the website had analysed too few fares to be credible.

''This website's claims are very extravagant, using a small sample size and erroneous calculations to come to a wildly incorrect and overblown conclusion,'' he said.

Mr Carolan said that of the more than 20 million trips taken in October, there were 1150 reimbursements issued due to a fare error, with a total value of about $3800 or 0.006 per cent.

But Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said some bus passengers would continue to be incorrectly charged for travel in zones one and two, because the system relies on GPS technology to determine where passengers touch on and off.

269 comments

They expire and can only be replaced at Southern ~Cross? What idiot thought of that idea? Oyster cards don't expire.

Commenter

Will

Location

Melb

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 7:46AM

Ted will lose a lot of votes over this. Brumby may have got it started, but Ted has been the one with the lack of humanity to enfirce it. Now they're gooing to take metcards off the trams as well. Then the ticketo's will swarm in with avengance and exploit the confusion. Ahhh, it's all revenue for Ted

Commenter

sarajane

Location

melbourne

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:00AM

You could make numerous comparisons about how much better the Oyster card system is. The most obvious being the speed at which the gates open, which is still not adequate with the 'Myki Only' gates. My favourite 'Myki' flaw is that if you have a credit card top up declined the card is automatically and instantly deactivated (even if you still have credit), and can only be fixed by mailing to TTA for 7-10 working days. I now have two Myki cards to get around this annoyance. It is a shame as the concept is really good, just poorly implemented.

Commenter

Matt

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:15AM

Like Matt, I had the credit card flaw too. At that point I asked them to close my account, I cut up my miki card. Now I just use an unregistered card.

As for why Melbourne didnt just simply adapt something like an Oyster system (which runs on buses, multiple train networks, boats and light rail) I will never understand. They even allow for single purchase paper tickets! What a bold vision of the future that is.

Commenter

whiteanvil

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:46AM

@sarajane,

what do you think Baillieu could possibly have done? The MYKI system is a proverbial white elephant with no redeeming features and no likelihood of improvement, but Labor locked us so tightly into the contract that Baillieu would potentially have had to bankrupt the state to get us out of it.

Labor is fully and completely to blame for this, but I am not the slightest bit surprised that you would attempt to turn the blame onto Baillieu and the Liberals, with only a passing reference to Labor.

Just what would you have done to improve the system (a virtual impossibility) or break the contract without bankrupting Victoria? I look forward to your answer, minus the stereotypical anti-Liberal vitriol, outlining exactly what you would do to fix this mess.

Commenter

blu

Location

Geelong

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:46AM

Exactly, Oyster cards do not expire and if you are a visitor, like I was, you can return the card to any outlet and get a refund of your 5 pounds deposit. Myki is a joke!

Commenter

Ashley

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:47AM

When I first read about Myki years before even the first delay in its introduction, I knew immediately it was going to be a disaster. I was wrong. It is even worse than that - so bad that before metcards were taken off the market, I quit my job and got another where I don't have to use PT at all. The more I read about Myki, the more I congratulate myself.

Commenter

snafu

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:55AM

While Myki may not be the best card system out there I'm sure the public would be a little more accepting of it if it wasn't run by muppets who create issues like this. Who comes up with this stuff and why are they being paid for it? Its almost like they do it on purpose just to annoy us.

@matt, agreed the credit card flaw is the worst. It will be even more of an annoyance once myki becomes the sole ticket option.

Commenter

ikris82

Location

melbourne

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 10:08AM

It is ludicrous that transport authorities in this country did not just clone the UK Oyster system. Instead they spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying and failing to reinvent the wheel and in the process were totally screwed by companies like Cubic. In Brisbane we have the same problems with slow gates/readers, so queues regularly form as you try to exit a station. Also dodgy readers leading to overcharging where you then have 30 days to request a balance adjustment or your $ are lost forever.

On a positive note, I hear they have a good system in Perth.....

Commenter

Plugger

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 10:18AM

Why have to purchase a new card, if such a smart card why cant card be electronically updated? why is card faulty after 4 years? why were people not warned they need to buy a new card after 4 years, why does a smart card need so many manual actions by customers. I say keep expired cards and enforce they electronically upgrade them. Where is the consumer watchdog hiding as usual.

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